ron-t kayaking blog
11 July 2014 ............ Cemaes to Carmel Head
A beautiful afternoon, so I reckoned I would have a quick outing out from Cemaes, to see if I could get out to Middle Mouse - the last few times I have been out that way, I haven`t been able to get out to Middle Mouse.
It turned into an amazing epic taking in a big chunk of the north coast - from Dinas Gynfor to Carmel Head.
Because of the number of pictures, I have split this blog into two separate web pages.
Approaching Dinas Gynfor, with Porth Llanlleiana and the porcelain factory on the right.
Just past Dinas Gynfor, and looking right along the north coast eastwards -
Whilst I was sitting there taking that picture, just about 30 metres in front of me a couple of porpoises popped up and vanished again - my first of several sightings of porpoises during the afternoon. However they are just too quick for me to get a picture of them.
Middle Mouse was looking good, and I headed off.
At the south west end of Middle Mouse, and there is quite a colony of cormorants.
I`m not really a bird spotting person, but I don`t think I have ever seen cormorants with white faces before - there were a few of them.
I see in the first picture that there is also a cormorant with a white chest.
There were of course a few rather noisy seagulls - although I can`t tell you what the actual species is - to me they are just seagulls - and it makes a change from meeting them on top of Snowdon.
Round on the south east corner of Middle Mouse the guillemots hang out - there didn`t seem to be all that many of them, considering how white the rock is.
Are they beginning to leave already ?
A couple of views from Middle Mouse - first of all, this is looking eastwards right along to Point Lynas in the distance.
Round the back of Middle Mouse, and looking a way to the west, to Carmel Head, West Mouse, and the Skerries.
Now at this point I wondered what to do - it wasn`t too far away from the end of the ebb tide and the start of the flood tide, and it was just before Springs - so I didn`t really want to head further east, then have to come back round Dinas Gynfor later on against a Springs flood tide.
So I decided to use the last of the ebb tide to cross over to Wylfa Head, then work my way back into Cemaes from there.
Just after leaving Middle Mouse I had my second sighting of a pair of porpoises - were they same ones that I had seen at the far side of Dinas Gynfor ?
What are the chances that they followed exactly the same path that I had done from Dinas Gynfor to Middle Mouse, at the same time ?
Sadly, I`ve no idea.
About a third of the way across to Wylfa Head I had my third sighting of a porpoise - a single one this time, between me and the coast.
By the time I got to Wylfa Head, it was pretty much slack water, so I reckoned I would continue on a bit more - after all, it would be no problem coming back with the flood tide. So I headed off - here is a picture of Wylfa Head - which manages to make Wylfa Head look quite unimpressive.
I don`t know why it does this, because Wylfa Head feels quite a distinctive and exposed place when you are paddling around it, as you are right out in open water, and it catches all the sea that is going.
This is looking back to where I had come from - Middle Mouse and Dinas Gynfor.
Next stop was the Harry Furlough`s Rocks just off Cemlyn Point.
When you are on land at Cemlyn Point, the Harry Furlough`s Rocks just look to be a not very significant patch of rocks.
However at low tide, in a boat right beside them, they seem to be quite an expanse of rock - and it was strange to think that in just a few hours they would be completely covered.
Tucked in a sort of bay I came across this - some form of large diameter pipes, filled with concrete.
I wonder if it was some kind of marker bouy/light - at one end there are some lovely big brass nuts - I wonder if I took a huge spanner out there they would unscrew. The spanner would probably sink my boat.
At the other end there is at least one big steel bar sticking out of the concrete which has been cut off - it somewhat confirms that at some time in the past there was a steel structure on top of the concrete.
Isn`t it strange how man made objects in the sea seem to attract such a variety of marine life, far more than the natural rocks around them.
The Harry Furlough`s Rocks are in two bits, and there was a neat channel between them, which was just negotiable.
By the time I had finished at Harry Furlough`s Rocks there was obviously a bit of a flood tide, however the sea was remarkably quiet, so I decided I had nothing to lose, I would carry on, and see if I could get to West Mouse.
The story continues in part 2.
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